Advocates make the push for Mass to go polystyrene free

Conor Powers-Smith csmith@wickedlocal.com

Thursday

Aug 9, 2018 at 2:50 PMAug 9, 2018 at 2:50 PM

Activists, lawmakers push for statewide Styrofoam ban at Mystic River cleanup in Medford

Members of advocacy group Environment Massachusetts took to the shores of the Mystic River in Medford Thursday morning to clean up the waterway and argue for a statewide ban on a major source of pollution.

"We need to curb the flow of single-use plastic that is destroying our marine and freshwater ecosystems," said Jake Taber, campaign director at the group’s Cambridge office. "One of the worst forms of single-use plastic is single-use polystyrene, what a lot of people know as Styrofoam. In the US alone, every single day we throw away 70 million foam cups, and that’s to say nothing about the foam bowls, takeout containers, and foam trays that we also throw away."

A number of factors play into Styrofoam’s environmental impact.

"Polystyrene is difficult and uneconomical to recycle, which means that lots of this airy, lightweight trash ends up swelling our landfills, and from there about a third of it ends up polluting our oceans and our waterways," Taber said. "Once it’s out in our waterways and oceans, it takes about 400 years to break down, but in that time it also splits apart into small pieces, microplastics, that are ingested by organisms up and down the food chain, from plankton to whales."

Taber added that studies have found plastic fibers in the stomachs of 86 percent of sea turtles species, and about 50 percent of both sea birds and marine mammals. The pollutants make their way into the human body as well; another study found microplastics in the tap water of 83 percent of major metropolitan areas worldwide, and 93 percent of bottled water samples.

"Nothing that we use for five minutes obviously should pollute our environment for hundreds and hundreds of years," Taber said. "They can contain and soak up carcinogens and neurotoxins, which, if we’re exposed to those fragments either through our seafood or through our drinking water, can be harmful to human health."

Thursday’s cleanup was the culmination of a summer-long grassroots effort to raise support for a statewide Styrofoam ban.

"Over the course of this summer, the last three months alone, our offices all across the state have knocked on over 100,000 doors, and talked to almost 60,000 Bay Staters, from the Berkshires to Eastern Mass," Taber said. "Massachusetts is a leader on environmental issues, and we can be again by passing this regulation."

Young canvasser Zach Ayvazian accounted for his share of those knocks, and found a significant percentage of the people he talked to did not need to be convinced.

"Over the past months I’ve gotten to talk with hundreds of people about why it’s so important that a statewide ban should be passed," he said. "I was surprised to see that a lot of people already know and care about this issue. We have known for decades that polystyrene is extremely harmful and can disrupt both marine and freshwater ecosystems."

Ayvazian’s commitment to the environment overrode other considerations Thursday morning.

"Today is my 19th birthday, and while I could be doing anything else, I’m excited to be here to help clean up the Mystic River," he said. "Although Massachusetts is considered to be one of the most eco-friendly states, we really should step up our game and pass this ban, because if we don’t it could be extremely detrimental to the environment. Massachusetts does have the will."

Somerville State Rep. Mike Connolly (D-26th Middlesex) was on hand to promise his support for the measure.

"I’m absolutely committed to supporting the campaign, co-sponsoring or sponsoring legislation," he said. "We’ve made tremendous strides here at the Mystic River, thanks to the efforts of the Mystic River Watershed Association and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, but this is an issue that goes way beyond the Mystic River. It’s really an issue that we have to do a lot more to address. Our throwaway culture, our dependence on single-use plastics including polystyrene, is creating an environmental catastrophe, and the time is now for our state to take action to address it."

Connolly said the legislation should stand a fair chance of passage. The approximately 30 Massachusetts communities that have already banned Styrofoam—including his own constituencies of Cambridge and Somerville—along with groups like Environment Massachusetts, are showing state lawmakers the way, he added.

"I think there is a good chance as we move forward," said Connolly. "Things like this tend to start from the bottom up, so we’re seeing more and more communities take this step, and I think this is the kind of activism and actions that will lead to full statewide policies."

Taber said Environment Massachusetts will not stop at working to ban Styrofoam.

"We’re starting with food service because we do have so many alternatives..." he said. "Single-use plastic in general, we have to look at everything that we’re using. In general our economy is a single-stream unidirectional throwaway economy, in which we produce things to be used once and then to be thrown away."

Alternatives will eventually have to be found for most or all of the sources of microplastics in the environment, Taber said, an effort Massachusetts communities, and the state as a whole, can and should lead the way on.

"It’s our hope that no matter the single-use plastic, we take a hard look at whether or not that can be replaced, because ultimately, in the long term, we don’t have the option to continue operating our economy the way we’re operating it," he said. "Great Barrington out in Western Massachusetts was the latest community to pass a ban on single-use plastic bottles. Only three communities in the entire US have passed such restrictions, and they’re all right here in the Bay State."